Phantom
by kawaiidragonfoe821
Summary: Summery: Mulder & Scully investigate a series of deaths & attacks involving children in a small town outside of Vancouver Canada. As always, please R & R.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I OWN nothing & CLAIM nothing!**

_Summery: Mulder & Scully investigate a series of deaths & attacks involving children in a small town outside of Vancouver Canada. As always, please R & R._

"Mulder, this is a case for local homicide, so why are we wasting our time with it?" Scully said as they pulled up to a large, colonial style house which sat at the end of a long, winding private road. "Because, we were asked to." Mulder replied as he exited the car. "Agents, I'm glad that you could make it out here." A woman of about thirty or so said as she graciously waved them in. "Please." She said, gesturing for them to take a seat on the couch as she bustled off to the kitchen. "Thank you… Mrs. …?" "Harper, Janet Harper." She said as she took a nervous sip of her coffee. "I'm sorry to drag you all the way out here, but I haven't had any luck getting the police to listen to me. They just pegged Brian's death as 'accidental' & left it at that." She said, frustration was evident in her voice as her grip on her coffee cup tightened. "Mrs. Harper, I know this is going to be difficult, but do you think you could describe the events leading up to your son's death?" Mulder asked gently.

"It was a normal day, he went to school, & everything was fine. He came home, did his homework, & watched some television. We ate dinner together & I put him to bed, he was so excited because his last tooth had come out at school & he couldn't wait for the tooth fairy to come. When I went in the next morning to wake him…" Mrs. Harper trailed off as she blotted at her eyes with a Kleenex from the box Mulder had fetched for her. "Thank you very much, Mrs. Harper." Mulder said as he & Scully let them selves out. "Scully, I want you to take a look at the boy's body."

"Well?" Mulder said as he joined Scully in the autopsy lab. "I don't know, Mulder, there isn't a mark on him, externally or internally. I can't say from an official stand point what killed him, the best I can give you is my educated guess." Scully said as she pulled off her mask & goggles. "Well, what are you waiting for, Scully? Lay it on me." Mulder said as he shot her a playful grin, Scully rolled her eyes at him as she replied. "It seems as though that this boy died of extreme _fright_." Mulder gave her a surprised look. "I said it was my best educated guess, didn't I?" She replied with a wry smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I OWN nothing & CLAIM nothing!**

"Why is the boy dying of fright such an anomaly?" Mulder asked Scully on their way back to the hotel that night. "Because, Mulder it's highly unusual for a perfectly healthy eight year old to die of something that usually kills the very elderly & persons with heart & circulatory diseases." "Unusual, but not _impossible_… right?" Mulder replied as they pulled into a parking space in front of their rooms. "I suppose it could be _possible_, the human body is a wondrous & complicated machine." Scully replied thoughtfully as her phone rang. "Another child death has just been reported." She said.

"Same MO, death caused by extreme fright." Scully said into her portable tape recorder as she frustratedly looked over the girl's body. She started as Mulder suddenly burst through the lab doors. "Jesus, Mulder!" She said, Mulder however didn't notice, his excitement had taken pretense. "I've just come from the library, I've been doing research." He said as he handed her a print-outs from the internet. "Yama-Ubu?" Scully said skeptically as she read it over:

"_A kind of mountain witch that lives at the border between this life & the next. It is said that she visits children who have lost their last tooth, leaving money in exchange. Children are warned not to peek, for instant death awaits any who gaze upon this witch's face."_

Scully gave Mulder an exasperated look when she had finished reading the excerpt aloud. "Mulder what makes you think this applies here? This is _Japanese_ mythology." She said. "Who's to say there isn't a North American version?" Mulder replied, Scully merely rolled her eyes at him as she pushed the girl's body back into the storage unit. "Well I don't see _you_ coming up with a theory about what's killing the kids around here, & doesn't it seem the least bit odd to you that every one that has lost their last tooth?" He challenged. "Two children killed the night they lost their last baby tooth doesn't create a pattern, Mulder." Scully argued as Mulder's cell phone rang. "Would three count as a pattern?" He replied.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I OWN nothing & CLAIM nothing!**

"I think that I know someone that might be able to help you two, he's allegedly the only one to survive an attack from this… assailant as a child. "The local sheriff said as he, Mulder & Scully looked over the body of another little boy. "Can you give us the address?" Scully said. "Sure, just go east on route nine until you see a sign that says 'Pine Hill Road'; take a left & follow it until it dead ends." He said. "Scully I can't believe that you're _humoring_ me on this." Mulder said as he smiled warmly at her. "I'm humoring you because I think that we're running out of options." She replied as they made a left onto Pine Hill. "Geeze! I hope we don't lose our deposit." Mulder said with a grimace as the asphalt came to an abrupt end & the car hit a series of large humps, causing it to bottom out. "The scenery is so stunning here; too bad we won't get to enjoy it." Scully said sadly as they approached two large black iron gates at the end of the road. "Can I help you?" A flat voice said through the intercom to Mulder's left. "Yes, we're from the FBI & we're here to see a Jacob Mathews." "One moment please." She replied. After a brief wait, the gates in front of them began to open, groaning loudly in protest to the high humidity of the mountains.

"Oh, this is just _fitting_." Scully said exasperatedly as she gazed up at the towering mental hospital before them. "Are you sure you don't want to wait in the car?" She said jokingly to Mulder, Mulder returned her comment with a sarcastic smile as they entered. "We're agent's Mulder & Scully & we need to see a Jacob Mathews." Mulder said as he showed his badge to the nurse at the front desk. "Right this way, sir. Though I don't know what help he'll be, all he talks about is the ordeal he suffered when he was a kid, even our strongest anti-psychotics & best doctors haven't been able to help him." She said as she leaded them to the elevators. Third floor, room five fifty at the end of the hall to your left." She said as she left them.

"You're just here to tell me how crazy I' am, like the others." Jacob said as he sat cross-legged at the foot of his bed with his back to them, facing the small, depressingly barred rectangular window. "Actually, Mr. Mathews, we're more interested in what you have to say to _us_." Mulder replied. "Jacob turned sharply to face them with one smooth motion. "She's killing again, isn't she?" He said, it was disconcerting how suddenly lucid he became. "We came here hoping that you could tell us how you survived so we might be able to stop her." Mulder replied, Jacob let out a short, harsh laugh. "You can't stop her, no one can. She won't stop until her castle is complete." "What?" Scully interjected. "Every hundred years or so, she expands her kingdom. She uses the teeth she collects to add onto her castle. Her kingdom on the border between this life & the next." Mulder elbowed Scully with an _'I told you so'_ grin on his face.

"I'm sorry, Mulder but if you're going to stake the integrity of your entire case on the ranting of a madman, & then perhaps you _do_ belong back there." She said as she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the hospital as they drove away. "This makes about as much sense as shadowing every kid in this town that's due to lose their last tooth." Scully said flatly when he didn't answer. "How did you ever guess that's what I had in mind next?" Mulder replied. "You can't be serious!" She cried as she placed her hand on her forehead exasperatedly. "I don't see what choice we have, even if it is a child murderer that is using the legend as a cover to kill, his pattern is sporadic. We'll never catch him unless we do it this way." "Well, local PD is really going to love us." Scully said under her breath.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I OWN nothing & CLAIM nothing!**

"You want me to do what!" The sheriff said, looking at Mulder to Scully as if they also belonged in Pine Hill Mental hospital with Mathews. "We believe that a killer with a penchant for killing children is using the legend of this witch as an MO to murder the kids in this town. I know that it's asking a lot of your department, I've also made some calls back to Washington & more agents are on their way to help us." Scully said to Sheriff Bennet the next morning. "I sure hope to hell that you did, Miss Scully. Because I barely have the man power to cover the basics around here, it _is_ a small town, you know." He said flatly as they gave him a look. "A child killer?" Mulder said disappointedly once they were in the privacy of their car. "Do you honestly think that he would have been nearly as cooperative if I had let you march in there sprouting your theories about this witch? He would have sent _both_ of us to Pine Hill mental hospital." "Touché." Mulder replied, wearing a playful grin as he saluted her. "Let's go, we're staking out a Billy Johnson's house tonight.

"So… what should we do?" Mrs. Johnson said as she nervously let them in. "Just go about your normal routine." Scully replied as the worried mother departed their company to put her son to bed. "Do you really think that a human murderer is what is killing these kids, Scully?" Mulder asked as they made themselves comfortable in the sitting room. Mulder took the recliner, using his overcoat as a blanket as Scully made herself comfortable on the couch. "I'm not going to haul off & say it was some mythical witch." She said as she closed her eyes tiredly. "I guess one of us will be proven right by the end of tonight." Mulder replied as he settled back against the soft leather. "& you think it's going to be you." Scully replied, Mulder merely shrugged. "Scully shook her head, exasperatedly as she snuggled back against the arm of the couch.

Mulder was suddenly jolted awake by his vibrating cell phone a few hours later. "Agent Mulder, the killer tried to get Janet Myers, she's really shaken, but she's unhurt. She described the attacker to me &…" "Stay with her, & _do not_ leave her unattended." Mulder interrupted. "Yes sir." Agent Daniels replied as he broke their connection. "What's happening?" Scully slurred as she awoke to hear the tail end of his conversation. "An attempt was just made on a kid across town, but she was okay." "We might be dealing with multiple killers." Scully said, more to herself then to her partner. Suddenly, a crash & a scream came from the boy's bedroom. They rushed in to find a figure, hidden in a black shroud hovering over the boy in his bed. "Mulder, what are you doing!" Scully yelled as he rushed in & shoved the figure back, putting himself between the boy & his assailant. The creature slashed at him with its three inch nails just as Mulder fired his weapon & the creature went limp. Scully turned it over only to find a man behind a white porcelain mask before tending to Mulder. "Their just scratches; check the boy." Mulder said as she looked over the angry red marks under the tears in Mulder's shirt, made by prosthetic metal claws the killer had worn over his own hands.

"Well, it turned out to be a violent occult that was using the children's remains for their rituals. Apparently they had been doing so for hundreds of years; I did some research on Mathews' case & it turns out that the same occult was responsible for his ordeal as well, now maybe he can have some closure." Scully said as they made their way through their gate. "I was so eager to believe that this time, it clouded my judgment." He said embarrassingly as they took their seats on the airplane. "But I guess that an occult that prays to a mythical witch of death isn't exactly normal, is it?" Mulder added with a laugh. "No, it isn't." Scully agreed as their plane left the ground.


End file.
